Many of us will have read the exchange between the two Johns on the unbuttoned button-down. Did Agnelli simply not look in the mirror that morning? I have button-downs - including a couple of Brooks - in which it's pointless buttoning up because there's no natural roll. On the other hand I have button-downs - including Brooks - where the roll is everything it should be. Maybe Agnelli was wearing a slightly inferior shirt. Will we ever know? To my way of thinking, this - together with a bunch of other images seen in Flusser and the like - is just the 'fuck off, I'm rich so I can do as I please' look. Fair enough. It's still more stylish than the pampered rich kid who can't be arsed to shave or run a comb through his hair way of carrying on. I quite like the way he wears his watch, though I don't think I'll bother.
My apologies. There is supposed to be one posting only. If anyone with the technical know-how looks this over I wonder if they might be able to do the necessary deletions?
Last edited by nouvelle vague (2010-07-04 08:40:18)
Agnelli was an Italian who used certain techniques in dress to unnerve his business opponents.
He is to Ivy style what Cyril Smith was to handgliding.
Not really part of the same canon.
Probably, that's the danger with style.
Agnelli gets mentioned a lot of the Forums, but Fiat under his leadership was hardly, in terms of quality, world beating.
He strikes me as an example of not style over substance, but an example bon vivantism pure and simple.
I might add, I really don't dig Italian fashion at all. What I do like, is when the Italians pay homage to English style.
"Style over substance" - this is exactly what I have always aspired to, and what Italians consistently and miraculously do so well. This has to be their national slogan. Beauty is all. Image is all. Yes! How alien to us Anglo-Saxons to be confronted by such a direct threat to our banal values of sweat, diligence and work ethic above all else.
Agnelli obviously looked rather marvellous - minted, aristocratic, and nonchalant. Compare him to the British equivalent and gasp at the contrast in national cultures - Alan Sugar, Richard Branson, James Dyson.... Sempre l'Italia!
g.g.